Titanium carbide nanocrystals in circumstellar environments.

Meteorites contain micrometer-sized graphite grains with embedded titanium carbide grains. Although isotopic analysis identifies asymptotic giant branch stars as the birth sites of these grains, there is no direct observational identification of these grains in astronomical sources. We report that infrared wavelength spectra of gas-phase titanium carbide nanocrystals derived in the laboratory show a prominent feature at a wavelength of 20.1 micrometers, which compares well to a similar feature in observed spectra of postasymptotic giant branch stars. It is concluded that titanium carbide forms during a short (approximately 100 years) phase of catastrophic mass loss (>0.001 solar masses per year) in dying, low-mass stars.

Infrared spectra of gas-phase V(+)-(benzene) and V(+)-(benzene)(2) complexes.

The organometallic ions V+-(benzene) and V+-(benzene)2 are produced by laser vaporization in a pulsed nozzle source. They are trapped and mass selected in an ion-trap/time-of-flight mass spectrometer, and their infrared spectra are measured with resonance-enhanced multiphoton photodissociation (IR-REMPD) spectroscopy with a tunable free-electron laser. Vibrational bands in the 600-1800 cm-1 region are characteristic of the benzene molecular moiety perturbed by the metal cation bonding. Experimental data are compared to the IR spectra derived from density functional calculations. Vibrational patterns in V+-(C6H6) indicate that the metal is bound in an eta6 pi-bonding configuration, while V+-(C6H6)2 is a sandwich. Trapped-ion IR-REMPD is a general method to access the vibrational spectroscopy of organometallic ions and their clusters.